The Incredible Hulk (television series) 1978-1982

[The Joker]

[Silver Nemesis]

Ragnarok did seem to strike a chord with casual viewers, which I guess is why they doubled down on Taika Waititi's approach. I know people who aren't comic fans who enjoyed it, but to me it was just a waste of the Planet Hulk story. Similar to how The Flash wasted the Flashpoint story. In both cases the filmmakers took an epic saga in which the displaced hero fights for survival in a dystopian world and ultimately suffers tremendous personal loss, and reduced it to a goofy cameo-filled comedy bereft of the pathos that defined the original comic. At least Marvel had the excuse of not being allowed to make a straight-up adaptation of Planet Hulk owing to the legal situation with Universal. DC had no comparable excuse to screw up Flashpoint as badly as they did.

Coming back to this, I watched John Carter (2012) last week and it's the closest I've seen to a proper live action Planet Hulk movie. John Carter was a box office bomb with a notoriously bad marketing campaign (Disney should have stuck with the original title of John Carter of Mars), and I had little interest in seeing it myself when it first came out. But it's a better film than I expected and I ended up enjoying it.

Some of the CG effects are dated, the action scenes are over the top, I had issues with some of the editing choices, and I wasn't sure what the Therns' objectives were. But other than that, I think it's a solid and slightly underrated science fantasy adventure. It's prompted me to start reading A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the literary series by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs. If the books are anything like the film, then they clearly influenced Greg Pak.

Both John Carter and Planet Hulk are planetary romances in which a surly and aggressive Earthman (Carter/Banner) is reluctantly transported to a hostile alien world (Barsoom/Sakaar).

There he discovers he is stronger and more agile than the native life forms. He is capable of leaping vast distances with ease and can savagely battle his way through hordes of aliens.

One plot point sees him being captured and forced to fight monsters in a vast arena while spectators watch.

The villain in both stories is a tyrant with reddish skin and a mark on his left cheek (Sab Than/Red King).

The villain commands airships that unleash burning death on his enemies.

Despite his solitary and surly nature, the Earthman hero is joined by an band of allies assembled from the planet's different native races. One is a beautiful woman who is initially antagonistic towards him but eventually becomes his wife (Dejah Thoris/Caiera).

Carter's other allies include the green-skinned Thark woman Sola, who has parallels with several of Hulk's Warbound – she has six limbs like Miek, exhibits the religiosity of Hiroim, and the filial devotion of Elloe. Another ally is the doglike Woola, whose non-humanoid appearance evokes Hulk's more animalistic comrades (Miek, No-Name). Sola is actually a gentle woman and not a warrior, and Woola's a lot friendlier than anyone in Hulk's Warbound. But even so, they're alien outcasts who abide with the hero when everyone else is against him, much like the Warbound.

The hero in both stories has to overthrow a tyrant and tame the planet's warring races. The Earthman, who is haunted by his tragic past (Carter lost his wife and daughter), ends up finding contentment on his new world and decides to stay there with his bride. But in both stories, a tragic twist deprives him of that happy future and instead sees him returning to Earth.

There are many more similarities I could highlight in terms of plot, imagery and tone, but that would really require a separate thread. For anyone craving a serious live action Planet Hulk film, and who was disappointed by the goofy comedic tone of Thor: Ragnarok, I recommend John Carter. It's one of the last decent films Disney made before they bought Lucasfilm and started focusing on heavy-handed political messaging and milking pre-established screen IPs they'd bought from other studios. It's just as a shame that the planned sequels, Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars, were never made, as John Carter likely would have made a much better science fantasy trilogy that the Star Wars sequel films. It's certainly a better and more earnest Planet Hulk movie than Thor: Ragnarok.

[The Joker]

I'll have to check out "John Carter" due to your recommendation, Silver. I *think* I have the DVD somewhere. Like you, I wasn't all that interested when it first came out, and I think I bought the DVD hobby store a few years back, but I have heard decent things about it, and your review certainly helps with curiosity, considering all the Planet Hulk similarities.

[Silver Nemesis]

As long as you don't expect too much, I think you'll enjoy it. I only watched John Carter because I signed up to Disney+ for Daredevil: Born Again and I'm trying to get the most out of my one-month subscription before it runs out. It's ending soon, but I think I might buy the Blu-ray of John Carter so I can re-watch it when I've finished reading the novel. It's selling dirt cheap on Amazon right now.

It's no masterpiece, and it's not in the same league as director Andrew Stanton's previous sci-fi film (Wall-E), but for those willing to overlook its flaws and engage with its interesting Martian lore, it's a lot of fun. If The Black Hole was Disney's answer to Star Wars, then John Carter was their version of Avatar (until they bought Fox and ended up owning Avatar). It reminds me of those old Edgar Rice Burroughs movies Amicus made in the 1970s – The Land That Time Forgot (1974), At the Earth's Core (1976) and The People That Time Forgot (1977) – only produced on a much bigger budget.

John Carter has obvious similarities with other science fantasy stories, which led some reviewers to condemn the movie as derivative when it first came out. But while those similarities are undeniable, that's because the source material, Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel A Princess of Mars, influenced many later works (Flash Gordon, Superman, Dune, Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar). John Carter was the progenitor of many tropes now associated with space adventure stories. Unfortunately the film adaptation languished in development hell for roughly eighty years, so that by time it was finally made it seemed derivative. But this story is where many of those tropes originated.

Given how they've lately tried turning many of their male-centric franchises into female-centric franchises, and alienated both demographics in the process, it's easy to forget that there was a time when Disney used to make enjoyable sci-fi adventure films geared towards male viewers. You can see this in old classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), The Black Hole (1979) and Tron (1982), but also in underrated 21st century offerings like Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Treasure Planet (2002) and John Carter (2012). Only five years elapsed between the making of JC and Thor: Ragnarok, yet during that time the rot had set in and snarky meta-humour had replaced earnest storytelling. They feel like specimens of two different eras of cinema, and I know which I prefer. Even B and C grade films from pre-2016 are better than most of today's A-list movies.

Anyway, if you do watch JC let me know what you think of it. And see if you agree about the Planet Hulk parallels. It might even be worth having a separate John Carter of Mars thread to discuss the movie, novels and comics.

A few other similarities between JC and PH:

•   A scene where members of a race native to the alien planet try to persuade the male hero to lead them in battle, but he refuses.
•   A scene where the hero is presumed dead while fighting in an arena, only to then tear his way out of the corpse of the giant monster he's just killed.
•   A peaceful scene where the hero stands on a balcony at night gazing out over his new kingdom after consummating his marriage.